By Gwen Frangs / Cambridge, UK / February 2021
The word b’reishit is the very first word of the Old Testament.
The first letter בְּ is a preposition and can mean ‘in’, ‘when’, ‘with’ or ‘by’. Ancient Jewish scholars would translate it as ‘with’. A Jewish work from antiquity called Genesis Rabbah (1:1) says the following regarding b’reishit:
‘Thus God consulted the Torah and created the world when the Torah declares, ‘with רֵאשִׁית (rē’šîṯ) God created…’
They thought that the rest of the word רֵאשִׁית might be code for wisdom and that Genesis 1:1 was saying that with wisdom God created the heavens and the earth.
I think it is safe to say that these scholars knew what they were doing when they translated the word in this way, using this type of grammar. We can see from their translation that the common English translation: ‘In the beginning’ is not cast in stone. There are other translation options for the word.
Reb Jeff in his article: Bereshit: In the Beginning of What? makes the point that according to ancient Hebrew grammar the word must be translated as: ‘In the beginning of’. The word ‘of’ must be there for it to be a correct translation because there is a vowel called “sh’va” under the letter bet in the word b’reishit. Therefore, a correct translation of b’reishit is: ‘In the beginning of’.
I checked this out and there are four other scriptures in which b’reishit is used in this way:
בְּרֵאשִׁ֗ית מַמְלְכ֛וּת יְהוֹיָקִ֥ים (Jeremiah 26:1) ‘In the beginning of the reign….’
בְּרֵאשִׁ֗ית מַמְלֶ֛כֶת יְהוֹיָקִ֥ם (Jeremiah 27:1) ‘In the beginning of the reign…’
בַּשָּׁנָ֣ה הַהִ֗יא בְּרֵאשִׁית֙ מַמְלֶ֙כֶת֙ צִדְקִיָּ֣ה (Jeremiah 28:1) ‘And it came to pass the same year, in the beginning of the reign…’
אֶל־ עֵילָ֑ם בְּרֵאשִׁ֗ית מַלְכ֛וּת צִדְקִיָּ֥ה (Jeremiah 49:34) ‘Elam, at the beginning of the reign…’
I decided to combine these two different translations of the word – the בְּ used as the preposition ‘with’ and ‘reishit’ translated as ‘the beginning of’ – and I came up with an interesting translation which also fits with current scientific theory regarding the creation of the heavens and the earth. This translation reads as: ‘With the Beginning Of.’
Therefore, the entire verse of Genesis 1:1 reads: ‘With the Beginning Of created God the heavens and the earth.’
I suspect that ‘the Beginning Of’ is a reference to the Big Bang and that the author of Genesis 1 is saying that God created the heavens and the earth with the Big Bang. The verse can be read as: With the Big Bang God created the heavens and the earth.
I believe that Genesis 1:1 is a description of the Big Bang written by an ancient author who was shown a vision of the Big Bang by God. He described the event as ‘the Beginning Of’ because he did not have the term ‘Big Bang’ available to him.
Although some ancient Jewish scholars translated it as ‘with’, the English Bible translators have always translated בְּ to mean ‘in’ probably because John 1:1 uses the phrase: ‘In the beginning…’ However the apostle John could not have been quoting Genesis 1:1 when he wrote: ‘In the beginning….’ because Revelations 3:14, Colossians 1:15 and Hebrews 1:6 make it clear that God created the Holy Spirit before He created the universe.
And to the messenger of the church in Laodicea write these things says the Amen, the Witness faithful and True, the Beginning of the creation of God
Revelations 3:14 Bible Hub Interlinear Bible
This verse shows that the Holy Spirit is a part of the creation because it says that He is the beginning of the creation of God. The beginning of the Alphabet is the letter A. This letter is a part of the Alphabet itself. It doesn’t stand outside of the alphabet. In the same way the Holy Spirit is a part of the creation itself. He was the firstborn of creation.
However, it is clear that Revelations 3:14, Colossians 1:15 and Hebrews 1:6 are all speaking about Jesus, so why am I saying that they are speaking about the Holy Spirit? I am saying this because these are all Bible verses which speak about Jesus before He was Jesus. Before Jesus was Jesus He pre-existed as the Holy Spirit.
Colossians 1:16 and Hebrews 1:10 portray Jesus as the agent of creation.
However, the Old Testament makes it clear that the Holy Spirit was the agent of creation.
By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and by the breath of his mouth all their host.
“By His Spirit [God] adorned the heavens”
Therefore, the Holy Spirit, the agent of creation, became incarnate as the Man Jesus. The apostles recognized that Jesus was the incarnate Holy Spirit. Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 3:17 that ‘the Lord is the Spirit’ and in 2 Corinthians 3:18 Paul calls Jesus: ‘the Lord the Spirit’.
In Philippians, Paul says: ‘For I know that through your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ this will turn out for my deliverance’ (Philippians 1:19 NRSV).
In Galatians, Paul says: ‘And because you Gentiles have become his children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, and now you can call God your dear Father’ (Galatians 4:6 NLT).
In Romans, Paul says: ‘But you are not in the flesh; you are in the Spirit, since the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. But if Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness.’ (Romans 8:9, 10 NRSV).
John describes how Jesus breathed the Holy Spirit into the disciples: ‘Then he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit” ‘(John 20:22 CEV).
Luke, the author of the book of Acts, also recognized that the Spirit of Jesus, was the Holy Spirit. He says in Acts 16: ‘ And after they came to Mysia, they were trying to go into Bithynia, and the Spirit of Jesus did not permit them (Acts 16:7 NASB).
When translating Colossians 1:16, the Bible Hub interlinear Bible translates the word εἰς as ‘unto’. That is a mistranslation of this Greek word. If you click on the number above the word, you will see that it means ‘into’. It is shocking to see that most of the English Bibles do not translate the word correctly. The NIV, the English Standard Version and the New King James translates it as ‘for’. However, the Greek word means ‘into’. Therefore, when speaking about Jesus in Colossians 1:16 Paul says:
‘Because in Him were created all things in the heavens and upon the earth, the visible and the invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities. All things through Him and into Him have been created.’
The only way in which everything could fit inside of Jesus is if He pre-existed as the Spirit of God. In the Gospel of John, Jesus describes Himself as being the Light of the world (John 8:12). Light can exist as both a particle and a wave. When the Holy Spirit became Jesus, He became different to what He was as the Holy Spirit because Jesus was also a man with a body of flesh which gave Him human emotions and made Him share in the difficulties of what it is to be a man. As Jesus, the Holy Spirit became fixed in the form of a man. However, He also remains as the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit now exists as both a Spirit and as Jesus, the Man.
But how can it be that the Holy Spirit, Who we know is God, could be a part of the creation? The answer is simple, but possibly difficult to accept at first. The Holy Spirit is a part of the creation because the Holy Spirit is an Angel. In the Old Testament He appeared as the Angel of the Lord, also called the Angel of Yahweh, or the Angel of the Presence.
In Exodus 3 verse 2 the angel of the Lord appears as fire in a bush and is referred to as God both in verse 4 and 6:
1 “Now Moses was pasturing the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian; and he led the flock to the west side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. 2 The angel of the Lord appeared to him in a blazing fire from the midst of a bush; and he looked, and behold, the bush was burning with fire, yet the bush was not consumed. 3 So Moses said, “I must turn aside now and see this marvellous sight, why the bush is not burned up.” 4 When the Lord saw that he turned aside to look, God called to him from the midst of the bush and said, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.” 5 Then He said, “Do not come near here; remove your sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.” 6 He said also, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” Then Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.” (NIV)
In Genesis 16:13 Hagar calls the Angel of the Lord, God:
7 “Now the angel of the Lord found her by a spring of water in the wilderness, by the spring on the way to Shur. 8 He said, “Hagar, Sarai’s maid, where have you come from and where are you going?” And she said, “I am fleeing from the presence of my mistress Sarai.” 9 Then the angel of the Lord said to her, “Return to your mistress, and submit yourself to her authority.” 10 Moreover, the angel of the Lord said to her, “I will greatly multiply your descendants so that they will be too many to count.” 11 The angel of the Lord said to her further, “Behold, you are with child, And you will bear a son; And you shall call his name Ishmael, Because the Lord has given heed to your affliction. 12 “He will be a wild donkey of a man, His hand will be against everyone, And everyone’s hand will be against him; And he will live to the east of all his brothers.” 13 Then she called the name of the Lord who spoke to her, “You are a God who sees”; for she said, “Have I even remained alive here after seeing Him?” 14 Therefore the well was called Beer-lahai-roi; behold, it is between Kadesh and Bered.” (NIV)
In verse Genesis 22:12 the Angel of the Lord calls Himself God:
1 “But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.”
…
12 He said, “Do not stretch out your hand against the lad, and do nothing to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me.”
…
15 Then the angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time from heaven, 16 and said, “By Myself I have sworn, declares the Lord, because you have done this thing and have not withheld your son, your only son, 17 indeed I will greatly bless you, and I will greatly multiply your seed as the stars of the heavens and as the sand which is on the seashore; and your seed shall possess the gate of their enemies. 18 In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice.” (NIV)
In Judges 13:22 Manoah calls the Angel of the Lord, God:
16 The angel of the Lord replied, “Even though you detain me, I will not eat any of your food. But if you prepare a burnt offering, offer it to the Lord.” (Manoah did not realize that it was the angel of the Lord.)
17 Then Manoah inquired of the angel of the Lord, “What is your name, so that we may honor you when your word comes true?”
18 He replied, “Why do you ask my name? It is beyond understanding.[a]” 19 Then Manoah took a young goat, together with the grain offering, and sacrificed it on a rock to the Lord. And the Lord did an amazing thing while Manoah and his wife watched: 20 As the flame blazed up from the altar toward heaven, the angel of the Lord ascended in the flame. Seeing this, Manoah and his wife fell with their faces to the ground. 21 When the angel of the Lord did not show himself again to Manoah and his wife, Manoah realized that it was the angel of the Lord.
22 “We are doomed to die!” he said to his wife. “We have seen God!” (NIV)
In Exodus 23:20-24 God describes the Angel within Whom was the Name of God:
20 “See, I am sending an angel ahead of you to guard you along the way and to bring you to the place I have prepared. 21 Pay attention to him and listen to what he says. Do not rebel against him; he will not forgive your rebellion, since my Name is in him. 22 If you listen carefully to what he says and do all that I say, I will be an enemy to your enemies and will oppose those who oppose you. 23 My angel will go ahead of you and bring you into the land of the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Canaanites, Hivites and Jebusites, and I will wipe them out.
God’s name encompassed His entire identity. Therefore, we see that to relate to His creation God, an invisible Spirit, created an Angel through Whom He could presence Himself. While it is the case that there are other angels, there are no other angels who are God. The Holy Spirit is completely unique in this regard.
Hebrews 1:7 explains the connection between angels and spirits:
7 In speaking of the angels he says,
“He makes his angels spirits,
and his servants flames of fire.”
This explains how the Holy Spirit can be both a Spirit and the Angel. It explains how the Holy Spirit was able to appear as tongues of fire on the day of Pentecost and as a blazing fire in the burning bush. The Hebrew word for ‘spirit’ can be translated as both ‘spirit’, ‘wind’ or ‘breath’. The Holy Spirit is an exceptionally powerful Angel Who is able to appear in different visible forms or to be invisible as Wind or a Spirit.
However, if the Holy Spirit existed before Jesus, why is it the case that when the Trinity is referenced in the New Testament that the Holy Spirit is placed in third place after the Father and the Son? I believe that this is to signify a shift in the power dynamics between mankind and angels which has come about because of the fall of Satan and his angels and because of Jesus, the Man, dying on the cross to restore all things to God. The apostle Paul makes it clear that as a result of what Jesus accomplished that God has now placed mankind in a position that is superior to angels and that one day we will judge angels (1 Corinthians 6:3). Therefore, God as a Man is placed before God as an Angel when the Trinity is referenced in scripture.
As all things were created through and into the Holy Spirit it is not possible that the heavens were created without the Holy Spirit already existing to create them. Therefore, Genesis 1:1 cannot refer to the beginning that John refers to in John 1 because the creation of the Holy Spirit is omitted in Genesis 1:1. It is inconceivable that an occurrence of such import as the creation of the Holy Spirit would have merely been lumped in as a part of the creation of the heavens. If Genesis 1:1 was the beginning of everything – Heaven, the heavenly hosts and the material universe – the creation of the Holy Spirit would have been referenced in Genesis 1:1 before the creation of the ‘heavens’. Therefore, the word ‘heavens’ in Genesis 1:1 cannot include Heaven and must only be referring to the creation of the material universe. It is impossible that Genesis 1:1 says ‘In the beginning…’ It has to be read as ‘With The Beginning of’ as this interpretation clarifies that Genesis 1:1 is referring to the creation of the material universe only. The ‘beginning’ that the apostle John was referring to in John 1 must have been a period which occurred prior to the creation of the material universe.
For further information: https://www.topicsinbiblicalstudies.com/the-holy-spirit-2/
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